‘Competency exam required for students without national certificates seeking to apply to universities’

AMMAN — Jordanian and foreign students who finish high school outside the Kingdom without a national certificate should sit for a competency exam if they apply to one of the country’s universities, according to a Higher Education Council decision.

The council approved the introduction of this test, because some countries do not have national exams or give students the option to apply to universities either using their accumulative scores at school, or by sitting for a national exam, according to a higher education official.

Bashir Al Zu’bi — president of the Higher Education Accreditation Commission, which will be in charge of the planned competency exams — said the test mechanism will be announced once  it is approved.

However, for university admission purposes, the competency test will have two parts: one measuring students’ general knowledge and accounting for 30 per cent, and the second testing their knowledge in the subjects they studied — scientific or literary streams —  and accounting for 40 per cent of the rate qualifying a student to be admitted at a local university.

The remaining 30 per cent will be allocated for a student’s performance in the certificate he/she holds from the country of origin.

Zu’bi told The Jordan Times on Saturday that students who finish school in Jordan will not have the choice to sit for this exam, as they still have to obtain the General Secondary Education Certificate Examination certificate to be eligible to study at university.

Higher Education Minister Labib Khadra noted that the Education Ministry will be the entity authorised to review certificates that require a student to sit for the competency exam.